Medicaid expansion reluctance not heartless

Ohio legislators worried about paying the state's bills are getting a bad rap. Perhaps Buckeye State taxpayers should stand behind them more firmly.

Earlier this year, Gov. John Kasich decided Ohio should comply with the new national health care law's mandate concerning the Medicaid program. Obamacare, as the law is known popularly, required states to expand eligibility for Medicaid.

Medicaid, a joint state-federal program, already provides health care assistance to more than 2.4 million Buckeye State residents.

Expansion to comply with the Obamacare requirement, ruled optional by the Supreme Court, would add another 275,000 enrollees.

But many members of the General Assembly are balking. In response, critics - including Kasich, to an extent - in effect are accusing the reluctant lawmakers of not being sympathetic enough to low-income Ohioans.

Ohio legislators are far from heartless wretches. Every two years when they approve state budgets, they include billions of dollars to help the less fortunate.

No, skeptical lawmakers are not being hard-hearted concerning the poor. Far from it: They simply want to ensure government spending does not drive more Ohioans to the poorhouse.

- Steubenville Herald-Star

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Medicaid expansion reluctance not heartless

Ohio legislators worried about paying the state's bills are getting a bad rap. Perhaps Buckeye State taxpayers should stand behind them more firmly.